School nutrition

Stringent meal-plan guidelines must be followed

By Beth Stubna

Supplying students with nutritious meals is a high priority for the Monongalia County Board of Education.

County schools are following stringent meal-plan guidelines to ensure school children are receiving adequate nutrition. Good nutrition is imperative to good health and is absolutely essential for healthy growth and development of children and adolescents.

Healthy meals require rules to establish nutrition standards for school meals distributed during the school day. School lunches must follow and meet the 1995 recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Adequate meals must provide one-third of students’ recommended daily allowances: Calories, calcium, iron, protein and vitamins A and C. Calories from fat must be limited to no more than 30 percent saturated fat. Trans fat should be less than 0.5 grams per entrée, and saturated fats should be kept under 10 percent. Sodium intake can’t exceed 1,100 milligrams daily.

Student must have at least 6 grams of dietary fiber, and water should be offered at all times.

These guidelines are in place to ensure optimal nutrition for students, while enhancing their learning ability and overall quality of life.

“Our nutrition program provides the opportunity for students to have nutritious meals in a controlled setting; it’s a real service to families to provide these meals,” said Nancy Walker, president of the Monongalia County Board of Education.

There are 63 cooks in Monongalia County and 18 cafeteria managers that service 10,389 county students. Cafeteria managers see that the menus are followed and fill in the gaps when necessary.

The Office of Child Nutrition is required to do a federal audit every five years on the county level. Inspections are also conducted in response to complaints.

Schools are informed about visits from inspectors, but they aren’t told which schools will be inspected. The last audit was conducted in January 2004 and didn’t present any finding that required corrective action.

There were some recommendations for University High School to work on changing and lowering the sodium levels, according to Laura Savio. Monongalia County’s child nutrition coordinator.

“It’s a big state and it’s hard to monitor as closely as we would like to,” said Linda St. Clair, dietitian for the Office of Child Nutrition.

Prices aren’t posing a threat in county lunch lines yet. The Monongalia County Board of Education voted unanimously not to increase student breakfast and lunch costs at the July 21 meeting.

Currently, students are paying $1.10 for breakfast and a $1.50 for lunch, prices that have been in effect since May 2004. Adult lunches didn’t fare as well; the board approved a 25 percent increase in adult meals. Adult breakfasts are now $2.75 and lunches are $3.50.

Lunch bills are mailed after each month’s billing cycle to the student’s home address. Low meal prices are designed to attract students and parents to the school meal programs, Savio said.

“Our board decided to hold our costs this year even though we saw a rise in food costs,” said Julie Snider, manager of the Office of Child Nutrition in Monongalia County. “The board decided to keep our lunches and breakfasts at the same price, because the last thing families need is another increase.”

The cost of meal preparation is $2.54 for breakfast and 3.39 for lunch. The board gets federal reimbursements for the breakfast and lunch programs as long as schools are following U.S. Department of Agriculture recommendations.

Schools are supplying healthy meals to students below the price of what it costs to make the meals.

“I don’t think you could pack a lunch for $1.50 a day and have a nice, hot, well-balanced, nutritious meal,” Snider said.

Schools will provide substitutions for students who require special dietary needs. Schools require that guardians present a physician’s statement that verifies the child’s medical condition and describes alternative food needed. Substitution meals will be provided at no additional charge.

There are 250 students within the county that require special dietary needs, according to Savio. Twenty-five of those are insulin dependent.

“The cooks know which students need a special diet,” said Snider. “We work together to identify these students; we try not to single them out too much.”

School lunches aren’t for everyone; some student would rather bring their own lunches to school.

There are some restrictions on items students can not bring; pop and candy aren’t permitted. The contents of students lunches aren’t monitored by school officials to ensure kids are adhering to the rules. School officials have no recourse to regulate the meals students bring. The meals students bring from home are an individual parent’s choice. School lunches are the only meals officials have jurisdiction over Savio said.

“At the beginning of the year they have an assembly and remind us about the rules on what you can eat and what you can’t,” said Jourdin Lazzell an eighth grade student at South Middle School. “We’re not allowed to have candy or anything that can make us hyper; they just don’t want us going crazy on sugar.”

The federal government provides Monongalia schools with applications to apply for free or reduced meal plans, based on income or if families receive aid from the state. If students are eligible for these programs, they can receive breakfast for 30 cents and lunch for 40 cents. Federal reimbursements give more money to the school systems to cover costs of applicable students. County schools process kids all year long, so the students that need aid can have access to meal plans.

“We have a 38 percent combined needy rate for the free and reduced meal applications,” said Savio.

School meal plans offer nutritious options for a variety of needs while remaining mindful of family funds.

The National School Lunch Act mandates that participating schools provide meals that are in accordance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The West Virginia Department of Education aligns itself with these guidelines. The National School Lunch Program allows students at participating schools to have access to healthy meals.

“West Virginia has become a model for other states because we have become progressive in our nutrition standards, and other states are modeling themselves after us,” said Savio.